Saint Michael's Student Joseph E. Tyson Studies Microfinance & Entrepreneurship in Uganda

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St. Mike's student Joe Tyson of Walpole studies abroad in Uganda

COLCHESTER, VT (11/30/2010)(readMedia)-- Joseph E. Tyson, a junior economics major at Saint Michael's College in Burlington, Vermont, is getting first-hand experience in micro financing during a study-abroad experience in Uganda. Joe Tyson, the son of Kristen and William Tyson of Walpole, N.H., has spent the fall living and studying in a country about as different from his New England home and college as could be.

Mr. Tyson lived first in the teeming city of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where he resided with an extended family of never fewer than eight people, and always someone new. Most of his family there did not speak English, but he called the experience, "one of the most interesting parts of the trip."

Tyson had to travel through relentless traffic jams lined with vendors selling everything from bootleg DVDs to various fruit brought in from the countryside. It took him well over an hour to get just five miles out of town to do research on agriculture. Joe did his second round of research living with a rural family in Gulu, a small city, mostly without electricity, that had been the center of the civil war in Northern Uganda that ended three years ago. Now peaceful, Gulu needs markets for its produce, and Joe is researching various aspects of agriculture of the surrounding villages. The villages of subsistence farmers are composed of huts with thatched roofs.

"Most farmers sell to a market already flooded with produce," Tyson said. This fact motivated him to research additional markets which he discovered in southern Sudan, a region emerging from conflict, with "a large unmet demand for food."

Tyson spoke also about a fascinating trip to Rwanda where he visited the genocide memorials. He also did a short research project on the economy of the country, "which is one of the most developed in East Africa." And he got a good dose of "cool animals"-elephants, giraffes, hippos and more, in Rawanda's national parks.

Tyson said he was very glad to have the chance to do research and to "talk first hand with community members and policy makers" in Uganda. He returns to the United States December 5.

Learn What Matters at Saint Michael's College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu . Saint Michael's provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns. It is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nations Best 371 Colleges, and is included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Saint Michael's is one of only 280 colleges and universities nationwide, one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation's top-100, Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report rankings.

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